It’s not unusual for bookstores to have cafés, so perhaps it’s only to be expected that a book wholesaler might want to get into food service, or one of its partners would. That’s the case for Bookazine COO Richard Kallman, who recently added a new title, CEO of CupcakeStop. Kallman, who had been an investor in the two-year old business that has two mobile trucks in the New York area and a bakery in Montclair, stepped in following the March departure of founder Lev Ekster.
CupcakeStop, which won the Best Cupcake in New York title for its red velvet cupcakes on an episode of the Food Network’s “Food Feud,” re-opened earlier this April after a month-long hiatus. Although the bakery store is open, the four-month old West Village location won’t re-open until sometime this summer. The CupcakeStop.com Web site is also live, as is the company’s Twitter and Facebook, all of which were initially pulled in March.
Like Bookazine, which is headed by Kallman and his brother, Robert—their grandfather founded the business in 1929— CupcakeStop is about to become a family business. Kallman’s wife, Kineret, will handle marketing. Their two children, Taylor and Jake, ages 12 and 10, are the company’s official taste testers. As for Kallman, he will continue to run Bookazine, while a staff of 25 handle day-to-day operations at CupcakeStop. He says that his primary role is overseeing the company’s expansion, from having the first cupcake truck in New York City to outlets across the country.
